If you’re working at a Canadian nonprofit, chances are your compensation is modest compared to others working at for-profit companies.

But how does your remuneration stack up against others in similar positions within the sector? Were you aware that new survey data shows, for example, that organizations focusing on arts and culture programming are paying the best overall? Or that non-management employees at stand-alone organizations reported better compensation than those at organizations operating under an umbrella or brand?

These are just some of the findings in the comprehensive 2011 Canadian Nonprofit Sector Compensation and Benefits Study carried out by CharityVillage® working with The Association Resource Centre, Inc. The full report was released on August 8.

The 116-page document provides both a broad and detailed look at compensation within the country’s nonprofit sector, compiling data from a survey completed by nearly 1,200 organizations and representing more than 16,000 employees across six levels of staffing: from chief executives to support staff. With more than 40 tables of comparative data, it’s poised to become a critical reference for hiring managers across Canada.

The scope of the document provides some current market intelligence that many would say is long overdue.

“HR managers and job seekers have been asking us for salary data since we went online 16 years ago,” says Maggie Leithead, president and CEO of CharityVillage®.

“I think that this study takes a big step in the right direction of making salary data broadly accessible and more visible to everyone working in Canada’s nonprofit sector.”

Answers to just about any question related to salary can be found in the pages of the report. Want to know how much support staffers in big-city organizations make on an hourly basis? What benefits senior managers commonly enjoy? How compensation varies between international, national and local nonprofits? All this information is available.

Employers need to be savvy

As the sector becomes increasingly professionalized, organizations are beginning to realize they need to offer competitive salaries and compelling benefits to attract people with the right skills, talents and experience. The survey provides essential market data that can help nonprofit employers remain competitive in their search for talented staff.

“You can’t assume that anyone can come off the street, say ‘I really believe in your work,’ and just do it,” explains Shawn Mitchell, director of content and communications for CharityVillage®. “A charity is no less complicated to run than a private company. And in many cases, they’re infinitely more sophisticated.

Nonprofits are beginning to understand that it’s worth investing a little more to attract and retain top-notch staff. It’s not at the expense of the cause, it’s a commitment to ensuring the cause is being advanced in a meaningful way.”

Survey methodology

Designing the survey was no easy task. It had to be sufficiently comprehensive to generate a meaningful level of detail, yet succinct enough to not take hours to complete. At the beginning of March, after field tests proved successful, the online survey was sent out to CharityVillage® website subscribers and promoted through newsletters and social media.

Nonprofits that didn’t have charitable status — initially excluded from the survey — lobbied for the opportunity to participate. As a result, CharityVillage® expanded the scope of the survey to include groups such as environmental advocacy groups, social service agencies and community foundations.

By the cutoff date, CharityVillage® had captured data from organizations across the country ranging in size from one-person offices up to multi-million dollar charities with hundreds of employees.

Data from a wide range of range of subsectors

Respondents also covered the full gamut of interests: social services, health, education, international development, social justice, conservation and more. Hospitals and post-secondary foundations were excluded, since these institutions typically offer much more generous compensation packages than the rest of the sector, and would have skewed survey results.

While Mitchell acknowledges the methodology was not as sophisticated as a randomized sample, he feels the resulting report fills a void in the sector. Publicly available compensation reports focusing exclusively on nonprofits are rare, he points out, and those that do exist tend to focus heavily on professional associations.

“The big value in the CharityVillage® study is the total number of organizations who responded and the amount of data that is available,” he says.

Broad trends also revealed

As well as highly specific information, the 2011 Canadian Nonprofit Sector Compensation and Benefits Study reveals a number of trends:

• Overall wage increases lag behind the national inflation rate. Over the past year, raises averaged just 1.5 to 2.5 percent, compared to a 3.1 percent increase in the consumer price index.
• Although women dominate the sector, men bring home more money at every job level except support staff. The percentage of men increases with seniority, as does the disparity in wages.
• Nonprofit organizations in larger centres pay more than those in smaller communities. While the cost of living is higher in large cities, this still leaves limited geographical choices for nonprofit professionals looking for more than a modest level of compensation.
• An impressive 96 percent of nonprofits offer benefits, a trend that’s very heartening according to Mitchell. “I think that what we’re seeing there is a broader effort by the sector as a whole to try and keep up [with the for-profit sector],” he says.
• While benefit packages are significantly slimmer than those in the corporate world, they typically include health benefits, some kind of retirement plan (most commonly in the form of RRSP contributions) and education benefits.
• Within this study group, charities pay less. Except for support staff, employees at all levels earn considerably less at registered charities than at their nonprofit counterparts.
• Salaries are higher in certain subsections. Organizations that focus on health and education, for example, tend to pay their employees more than those focusing on wildlife preservation, human rights or social justice.
• Despite the recent furor in the national media over highly paid executives, the survey revealed that the average chief executive at a nonprofit organization in Canada earns just $89,000.

Leithead hopes the study provides an overview of the professionalization of the sector and the complexity of the organizations within it. She says CharityVillage® plans to repeat the survey on a regular basis, offering insight into longitudinal trends as well as point-in-time snapshots.

“Over the years, people have looked to CharityVillage® as a reliable source for news and information about the sector,” says Leithead. “I hope that this new study will signal our continued efforts to be the place for Canadian nonprofit professionals to connect with ideas, opportunities and each other.”

Of course, this kind of undertaking can’t succeed without the support of the organizations CharityVillage® serves.

“Our goal is to cultivate an audience that will want to be an ongoing partner with us in the creation and use of this information,” says Mitchell.

Julie Stauffer is a Guelph-based freelance writer with extensive experience in the nonprofit sector.

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